Ten years after the Thessaloniki Declaration. For the Balkans the worst is not over yet, Quarterly, Centro Militare di Studi Strategici, 1/2013:5-12

June 2003, the member states of the European Union together with the leaders of the Western Balkan countries reached an agreement on the Thessaloniki Declaration. In this joint statement, he EU established the “European Perspective” of the Western Balkan countries making a solid commitment to accept the countries ready for the EU membership, judging each on its own value. The Thessaloniki Summit also marked the shift of the EU’s approach from the “security-focused” post-conflict stabilization, to the “enlargement-focused” European integration. Ten years after, the Western Balkans remains the only area of Europe’s geographical core yet to be incorporated. into the EU. For these countries, it is mostly a question of how rapidly they can achieve the Copenhagen Criteria. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Thessaloniki Declaration, looking at the accomplishments so far and the challenges encountered by EU and Balkans countries in facing the Thessaloniki Agenda, this analysis assesses the current state of play of the enlargement process, examining ways to revitalize it, and discussing the foreseeable scenarios resulting from the slowing down of the expansion process.